Do You Always Salt Your Food

[whitetailfreak]

I'm bad to salt everything before I even taste it. I keep a salt shaker in my truck. I don't drink or smoke so I guess I'll take my chances with salt.

 

[Redbow]

My Doctor told me years ago that he though my BP would stabilize if I lost about 20 lbs. and kept away from the salt. That way he said I might be able to get by without medication for my BP. But I didn't listen I was 6' 2" and 209 lbs then but I kept myself in very good physical condition at the time. So I know exercise and keeping fit will not stave off high blood pressure, or it didn't for me anyway. I could jog six or eight miles anytime when I was fit, lifted weights and did all kinds of other physical exercises. My heart rate today at almost 75 years of age is still in the low 50's. My Doctor made a nice comment on my physique during one visit years ago. But he never did like my elevated BP.

 

[Theturtle]

I never do before I taste something I try to get it right when cooking but if I eat out it’s gonna need salt

 

[mrs. hornet22]

I haven't bought table salt in decades. I use Diamond Crystal kosher salt for cooking, and sea salt for sprinkling stuff like French fries and such. You can keep your iodide supplements. Most of the world's population over history have never had table salt, and they didn't die from goiters.

Salt RUINS watermelon, and makes it inedible and horrible tasting.

Amen to that. Quack said watermelon DEMANDS salt. I rekon that's why I don't eat watermelon.

 

[gawildlife]

Mixed bag for me but by and large no. I taste then adjust if needed. More often than not no need to.
However, there are certain foods and places I eat that I know will need more salt. For instance watermelon. Nobody that I know of salts watermelon before handing you a slice. Fries most anywhere are lightly salted if at all. Understandable this day and age. Grits and hashbrowns likewise. Even then I taste first. Same goes for most beans.

 

[GeorgiaBob]

I am one of "those" people who salt just about everything. These days not as much as in my younger days. The reduction is about avoiding possible adverse reactions between salt and some of the meds my cardiologist has piled on. But, I have never had high blood pressure and I don't have diabetes. And yes, I know that extremely high salt intake may have been a factor in the heart problems I do have.

I do understand the WHY all the old folks salted most everything. These are several reasons. First salt helps water retention and before chilled air systems, when folks worked hard and sweat a lot (sometimes, a whole lot) extra water in the body was a good thing. But that wasn't all. Salt (actually the sodium) is necessary to help nerves process and transmit signals. There are several other reasons for salt in the system.

We need a minimum of about 500mg of salt for our body to function properly. Before highly processed food were part of our daily diet, salt was seldom a significant presence in the food that was set on the table. Most adult Americans in the 19th and early 20th century needed to add table salt to their diet to stay healthy. Today, almost all of us get far more salt than we need just from the processed food we eat. And really, we sweat less, for most of us a lot less, than our parents and grandparents.

I understand that I no longer need to salt my food to get enough salt. But I have spent 68 years enjoying the taste of salt on almost everything I eat (I even salt the jalapenos I eat for snacks). I add less salt than I did, but I still add salt.

 

[GoldDot40]

If my sister-in-law was a slug, she would have shriveled up a long time ago. She'll add salt to bacon. Never seen anything like it. She wonders why she has to be on blood pressure meds.

I used to salt everything up until I was in my early 20's and was diagnosed with hypertension. Doc said I need to cut WAY back on my sodium...so I did. I quit adding salt to nearly everything after it's been cooked. After a while, my taste buds changed and now I can do without salt on a LOT of things. If/when I do add salt anymore, I use garlic salt if the food is TOO bland. I do still use certain blends of seasoning on stuff as it's prepped to cook, but it's not much.

 

[Nicodemus]

I am one of "those" people who salt just about everything. These days not as much as in my younger days. The reduction is about avoiding possible adverse reactions between salt and some of the meds my cardiologist has piled on. But, I have never had high blood pressure and I don't have diabetes. And yes, I know that extremely high salt intake may have been a factor in the heart problems I do have.

I do understand the WHY all the old folks salted most everything. These are several reasons. First salt helps water retention and before chilled air systems, when folks worked hard and sweat a lot (sometimes, a whole lot) extra water in the body was a good thing. But that wasn't all. Salt (actually the sodium) is necessary to help nerves process and transmit signals. There are several other reasons for salt in the system.

We need a minimum of about 500mg of salt for our body to function properly. Before highly processed food were part of our daily diet, salt was seldom a significant presence in the food that was set on the table. Most adult Americans in the 19th and early 20th century needed to add table salt to their diet to stay healthy. Today, almost all of us get far more salt than we need just from the processed food we eat. And really, we sweat less, for most of us a lot less, than our parents and grandparents.

I understand that I no longer need to salt my food to get enough salt. But I have spent 68 years enjoying the taste of salt on almost everything I eat (I even salt the jalapenos I eat for snacks). I add less salt than I did, but I still add salt.

My kidney doctor told me not to exceed 300mg of salt per day. That can`t be done if you are dependent on a grocery store to supply all your food, It`s a good thing we grow most of our vegetables. Over the past couple of years I`ve started to cheat on that number some.

 

[CroMagnum]

I haven't bought table salt in decades. I use Diamond Crystal kosher salt for cooking, and sea salt for sprinkling stuff like French fries and such. You can keep your iodide supplements. Most of the world's population over history have never had table salt, and they didn't die from goiters.

Salt RUINS watermelon, and makes it inedible and horrible tasting.

Amen...lol

 

[earlthegoat2]

I go low sodium on everything I can and never add extra salt.

My blood pressure dropped 20 points on both ends when I did this. Beats blood pressure meds.

My sister does this though. Salts before she even tastes it. Salts salad and McDonalds fries even which have more than plenty already.

 

[NCHillbilly]

I never do before I taste something I try to get it right when cooking but if I eat out it’s gonna need salt

I'm the opposite. I find that most of the stuff from a restaurant is usually way too salty.

 

[NCHillbilly]

I go low sodium on everything I can and never add extra salt.

My blood pressure dropped 20 points on both ends when I did this. Beats blood pressure meds.

My sister does this though. Salts before she even tastes it. Salts salad and McDonalds fries even which have more than plenty already.

McDonalds fries already are coated in salt. I don't want any salt at all on a salad, just black pepper.

 

[Redbow]

I can't stand McDonalds fries they taste bitter to me. Its a mystery to me how my FIL got by with never having hypertension as much salt as he took into his body. He loved the salt cured hams like we used to salt down years ago when most country folks killed hogs. He salted all his food heavily but in the end his kidneys failed and that is what took him out of this world. But at over 92 years old he could not complain with all the years he had on this Earth. I guess salt intake is just not harmful to some people, kinda like some people who smoke most of their lives never have or don't seem to have any ill effects from smoking. The human body and how it works is a great mystery that man will probably never fully understand. Then there is the human mind, oh well.

 

[oldfella1962]

I haven't been able to eat watermelon since they cut my gallbladder out.

(Looks wistfully at the old man with the pickup truck load on my way home)

what is the link between your gallbladder and watermelon? I've had my gallbladder removed and I'm like a bottomless pit when I'm eating watermelon.

 

[Railroader]

what is the link between your gallbladder and watermelon? I've had my gallbladder removed and I'm like a bottomless pit when I'm eating watermelon.

Well, let's just say I would have to eat it on The John...

 

[Redbow]

Well, let's just say I would have to eat it on The John...

And definitely not eating it while running a train.

 

[EAGLE EYE 444]

I try my BEST to NOT eat very much salt. I only add it to two things that I only eat very rarely and one is in grits and the other is a fresh slice of tomato...especially when it is used in a tomato sandwich as I also add some black pepper along with it as the sandwich is made using ONLY Duke's Mayonnaise which is sugar free.

As others have advised above, there is "plenty" of sodium already loaded into most every kind of food that we eat each day already that most of us never even think about and this is NOT helping our health.

Unfortunately, I had a heart attack back on 5/29/2007 (ONLY 6 months after my wife of 31 1/2 years died from a heart attack). The stress of this 6 1/2 year battle of me caring for my wife's heart disease and diabetes finally got to me. Since then, I have to take various medicines etc to maintain a lower blood pressure and also take medicine for diabetes since it was discovered as well. Those two health related problems will make you think TWICE about adding a bunch of salt to any food. My daily meds consist of 10 different medicines with 7 in the morning and 3 in the evening.

Like my Cardiologist told me...."Just think twice before you turn that salt shaker upside down on your food".

 

[trad bow]

I don’t use salt but every once in a while. Now black pepper is another thing. I’m very heavy handed with black pepper

 

[Dub]

Once it is on your table and on your plate in your home or in a restaurant ? I know many people who do. They somehow seem to think no matter how their food is seasoned more salt needs to be applied before they eat it. My Mom and Stepdad were that way, so were my Grandparents and their children and most of their grandchildren. My Mom taught her two grand daughters to do so as well. Even before they taste their food they apply salt. I have seen my FIL cook scrambled eggs then when he put them on his plate he turned the top of his eggs white with salt. I honestly don't know how he could eat them that way.

I do not and have never added salt to my food after I get it on my plate, either here at my house, at anyone else's house or in a restaurant. I never acquired the habit of doing so. Most of the older generations that I was raised up with had to have more salt on their food before eating it. My Mom also taught my sister to add salt to her food before eating it, somehow Mom slipped up with teaching me on that one.

I am not saying by any means that it is harmful to add more salt to your food after you put it on your plate. I have had doctors tell me not to do so because I have high blood pressure and have been taking medication for it over many years. Some people just seem to crave salt and I know that when I was growing up we salted down our meat on the farm to preserve it and we ate lots of fat back. So I ate plenty of salt in my young life but I try not to today. My Mom had high blood pressure and diabetes, so did the other five of her siblings. Many of my cousins over the years have come down with either high blood pressure or diabetes as well. Most of my family has passed on now I have only one Uncle left and he lives in Florida. I have no idea if salt had anything to do with their medical conditions.

I read about a man years ago that employed about one hundred people to help him run his business. Once a person applied for employment with his company he would take that person out to dinner if he was seriously considering hiring she or he. If that person applied salt to his or her food after their order made it to the table he would not hire them. What the man's reasoning behind that issue was I do not know and the article did not say. I guess the man would have hired me, maybe.

I guess we all eat quite a bit more salt than our bodies really need.

Nope.


I taste things first before anything may or may not get added afterwards.


The only exception are when I'm eating at a restraint and eggs are served.....I'll reach for salt & pepper right off the rip.

 

[tad1]

Almost always taste first. Restaurants typically hammer the foods with salt and butter, they want that dish to pop! Most all processed foods have bunches of salt. HTN and heart disease aren't caused by salt but could be aggravated by it. Example Congestive heart failure and someone with high sodium intake can overload them because salt can increase the blood volume. Ever ate a few pieces of papa johns pizza and can't hardly drink enough water your so thirsty? Tons of sodium!
Too much salt can flat out ruin a dish. But, many foods demand salt, a fried egg or a steak being a prime example. Heck even steamed broccoli can benefit from a touch. I like to shake or grind some into my palm and then sprinkle on to taste when I season a dish. Some shakers/grinders are hard to meter.